Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 23:23:57 -0600

From: "Donald M. Lance" engdl[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SHOWME.MISSOURI.EDU

Subject: Re: pragmatic change in progress?



(not everything

spelled wh is pronounced with /hw/, even for folks like me who

hwinny. WHOA *never* has /hw/, in particular.)

arnold (zwicky[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ling.ohio-state.edu)



'Whoa' always seemed to me to be woefully misspelled. Since I had known

only horses that neighed, when I read in dialectology about horses that

whinneyed or whinkered I assume they all did so with h's. I seem to recall

that some neighbors had mules that they said whinneyed, with an h-, or

mules in general whinneyed. But I don't remember all that clearly: that

was a long time ago, longer ago than Arnold or DInIs go back to, by a

couple of years.